Search form

You are here

Roskam Speaks in Solidarity with Persecuted Christians in the Middle East

Jul 25, 2014

Press Release

WASHINGTON, DC—Today, Congressman Peter Roskam (IL-06) spoke on the House floor in solidarity with the thousands of Christians being persecuted throughout the Middle East.

“Radical Islamists have a phrase: ‘First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.’ Those who call for Israel’s destruction are the same radicals who are persecuting Christians throughout the Middle East.”

“Reported cases of Christians killed for their faith doubled worldwide [in 2013] from the previous year. Others have been kidnapped, forcibly converted, or exiled, while churches and holy sites have been destroyed.”

“Iraq’s Christian community has dropped from 1.5 million people in 2003 to only 200,000 today. And in Mosul—home to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities—ISIS militants have overrun the city and they’re using this Arabic symbol, painting it on homes to identify Nazarenes, or Christians. They’re told to convert to Islam, pay a religious tax, or be executed. And now, almost no Christians remain in Mosul—a city with a 2,000-year relationship with the Christian faith. And the situation is dire in Syria and elsewhere.”

“Middle East Christians need our prayers, our support, and our voices, and I’m proud to stand with those who follow the Nazarene.”